Del Toro Talks Upcoming Hobbit Production

One of the nice things about having Guillermo del Toro helming The Hobbit is that the director does not mind popping up often to report in on current production updates. Talking in a live chat, Del Toro announces some new details involving Hobbit production.

More The Hobbit Production Details

Besides discussing how the film's effects will be handled, Guillermo del Toro mentions how long he thinks filming will take -- I'm guessing for both parts -- and, as expected, his attention to the new creatures. (via BilboHobbit)

Q:Do you think filming Hellboy II helped prepare you for filming the Hobbit?

A:Technically, yes- but that’s not the challenge in THE HOBBIT. The challenge is to create and expand a massive universe and be as immersive as the Trilogy was. To approach Tolkien’s book with the right mixture of reverence, enthusiasm and invention.

Q:WILL THERE BE ANY COOL CREATURES IN HOBBIT LIKE HELLBOY2?

A:many many more and we will be pushing the goblin kindgom. we will be pushing smaug, the spiders of mirkwood. we will be pushing them to the edge of technology where we will fuse animatronics and cgi into a seamless new art form in creating creatures, i think.

Q:Do you plan to use any particular effects or techniques in the Hobbit that were used in Hellboy II?

A:Well, yes, but used in a different way. You will see some mind-boggling mixture of CGI / Puppetry like never before. The demarcation of where one technique ends and the other begins will NOT be as clean as in HBII or BLADE II or PAN’S LABYRINTH. I am going to push further than ever on both fronts.

Q:WHEN DOES FILMING FOR THE HOBBIT BEGIN?

A:it will begin in 2010 and we will shoot for about 370 days or so…

While he doesn't disclose who he is looking at for the role of Bilbo Baggins, Del Toro does admit that there might be something to reveal.